"If we didn't have pull tabs, people would pay more
out of pocket, both in the city and out," he said.

The state strongly regulates pull tab gambling, Christensen
said.

Organizations must pay the bar/restaurant where the pull
tabs are sold up to 20 percent of gross profits to the establishment, he
said.

Pull tab sales for the Hollywood Booster Club were down
at one site and holding its own at the other site, said Chairman Paul Engelhart.

The club sells pull tabs at the Hollywood Sports Complex
and the Hollywood Ranch House.

The club raises between $35,000 and $40,000 a year, mostly
from pull tab sales, for youth groups, scholarships at the Watertown-Mayer
High School and the Waconia High School, the Carver, Dakota, and Scott County
Food Shelf, and the Red Cross, Engelhart said.

"If it weren't for pull tabs, we wouldn't have much
(money) to give," said Bruce Johnson, member of the booster club.

Participants wouldn't be able to afford to be in the youth
sports activites, he said.

The club does conduct one to two fundraisers a year also,
normally dances or a golf tournament.

Proceeds from the door or entry fee goes to organ transplant
recipents or the New Germany Fire Department, he said.

The Lester Prairie Lions Club pull tabs sales are down
between 10 and 20 percent, said Joe Miller, gambling manager.

Lions pull tabs are available at the Porthole in Lester
Prairie. The Lions average sales of between five to six games per month,
he said. It's been down to three and four games a month lately, he said.

When only three or four games are sold a month, it starts
eating into donation money. Expenses are still there and aren't covered
100 percent those months, so they must be paid out of the donation portion
of the profits, Miller said.

"It's still the best fundraiser we have as an organization,"
he said.

Miller cites the economy as the reason for the decreased
sales. "People are spending less," he said.

The Lions do have other ways to raise money. The pancake
breakfasts the club organizes are usually for a specific person or organization.
The pull tab money is given out to organizations throughout Lester Prairie,
Miller said.

Organizations within the city that receive money from the
Lions include youth baseball and softball, the Lester Prairie Schools, after
prom party, city parks, National Honor Society, and the student council.

The Lions also host the Easter egg hunt and the bike rodeo
and provide the bags of goodies at the Lester Prairie Festival in December.

The Lions donate more than $10,000 per year to community
organizations, Miller said.

Miller sees the state's 20 percent cap on paying bar/restaurants
for selling pull tabs as a benefit to the smaller clubs like the Lions,
he said.

It helps those organizations that don't make thousands
of dollars a month, he said.

The cap will decrease the Lions' rent by about $100 per
month, he said.